Portable handheld electronic devices such as cellular telephone handsets or smart phones that have built-in digital camera capability (“portable media devices”) typically take pictures that are generally less sharp than those taken by more expensive and dedicated digital cameras. Image sharpness may be improved by focusing the optical image properly onto the image sensor that is part of the camera circuitry in the device. A moveable lens system, normally present in a higher end dedicated digital camera, can be used to achieve manual or automatic focusing. However, most smart phones lack such a feature since it tends to increase power consumption as well as result in additional bulk.